Mukul allays Council’s infringement fear

SHILLONG: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma has made it clear that his government has no intention to infringe upon the domain or to dilute the role of the District Council saying that the Ordinance was promulgated to empower and involve the traditional institutions in various aspects of governance and delivery system of development programmes.
“The intention was neither to infringe upon the domain nor to dilute the role of the District Council, but the State Government had come up with the Ordinance at that point of time based on the circumstances which are well known to everybody”, he said during a meeting with a delegation of KHADC MDCs led by Pynshngain Syiem, CEM, here on Thursday.
Besides the Ordinance promulgated by the State Government to empower the traditional institutions, the delegation also raised the issue of enforcement of Building Bye-laws beyond the Municipality areas.
He informed that the Government had decided not to come up with any regular Bill in as far as the Ordinance is concerned and made its stand clear that while doing so it has kept the platform open for engaging in discussions. “After the Ordinance comes to lapse in the event of the Government not introducing a regular bill to replace the ordinance when this Assembly session is over, the discussions will continue whether there will be any perceived need for the State Legislature to come up with any legislative mechanism”, he said, adding, “there should be no room for mistrust as far as the intention of the State Government is only to protect the interest of the people”.
Regarding enforcement of building bye-laws to regulate the various constructions in the State, it was discussed that certain records need to be referred to because the whole exercise dates back to decades.
“It is the culmination of long drawn exercise of the Government and the records show that it is with the complete involvement of the ADCs which ultimately culminated in those various notifications resulting in MUDA to enforce the provisions of law”, the Chief Minister said.
The Law department was asked to share these records with the ADCs so that they would be in a position to verify and connect with the past, according to the Chief Minister. The intention was to see that all those ultimate legislative measures embarked upon by the State Government were an offshoot of the joint exercise by all concerned, including the State Government and ADCs.
Besides the KHADC MDCs, the meeting was also attended by Home Minister Roshan Warjri, Urban Affairs Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh and other senior government officials.